Prescribing patterns

Donoghue JM, Tylee A (1996). The treatment of depression prescribing patterns of antidepressants in primary care in the United Kingdom. Br JPsychiatry 168, 164—8. 

Compared to antipsychotics, there are even fewer studies on the prescribing patterns of antidepressants done in Asian countries. Pi etal. (1985) conducted a survey of psychotropic prescribing practices reported by psychiatrists in 29 medical schools in 9 Asian countries. Daily dose range of tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) such as amitriptyline, imipramine, and nortriptyline in Asian countries was comparable to the practice in USA. This is despite differences found between Asian and non-Asian populations in the pharmacokinetics of TCAs (Pi et al, 1993). A questionnaire on the practical prescribing approaches in mood disorders administered to 298 Japanese psychiatrists was reported by Oshima et al. (1999). As first-line treatment, the majority of respondents chose newer TCAs or non-TCAs for moderate depression and older TCAs for severe depression. Combination of antidepressants and anxiolytics was preferred in moderate depression, while an antidepressant and antipsychotic combination was common in severe psychotic depression. Surprisingly, sulpiride was the most favored drug for dysthymia. In a naturalistic, prospective follow-up of 95 patients with major depression in Japan, the proportion of patients receiving 125 mg/day or less of imipramine was 69% at one month and 67% at six months (Furukawa et al., 2000). 

What are the similarities and differences in prescribing patterns across different countries that maybe determined by local and systemic service factors How can pharmacotherapy clinical guidelines and policy facilitate best practice to treat biologically and culturally diverse individuals ... 

Non-coercive Monitoring of prescribing patterns Measures encouraging rationalization of prescription Pharmaceutical care Remuneration system for pharmacies... 

Finally, we would stress that although it is not straightforward to achieve changes in prescribing patterns, there is a minimum of evidence to support the effectiveness of a coherent and systematic strategy that combines several formulas simultaneously, involves health professionals, and ultimately leads to... 

Rafferty, T., K. Wilson-Davis and H. McGavock (1997), How has fundholding in Northern Ireland affected prescribing patterns , British Medical Journal, 315, 166-70. 

Although pharmacology usually plays a critical role in drug development, the principles of pharmacology are less often followed in the practice of medical therapeutics, which is often performed by using predetermined or empiric prescribing patterns. Clinically there is often a broader set of rela-... 

Orlowski, J.P. and Wateska, L. (1992) The effects of pharmaceutical firm enticements on physician prescribing patterns. Chest 102 270-273. 

First, it is unclear to what extent these changes in medication prescribing patterns reflect good or bad clinical practices, or both. To determine the prevalence of children who might benefit from medication treatments, population-based studies are needed that simultaneously determine the extent of treated and untreated disorder and that also carefully examine... 

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major, worldwide problem with implications for mortality, morbidity, and consumption of healthcare resources. It is likely that the increase in AMR in recent years is attributable, to a large extent, to overuse of antimicrobial drugs in both humans and animals. Furthermore, it appears that prescribing patterns favouring tower doses of antibiotics for tonger durations contribute more towards AMR. 

Amino acids are invaluable because they can form long-chain polymers needed by our bodies in definite and prescribed patterns as determined by the cells. There are sometimes hundreds of amino acid units in these chains. There are special parts within the cells which synthesize the specialized proteins required from the small... 

Al-Sughayir MA. Depot antipsychotics. Patient characteristics and prescribing pattern. Saudi Med J... 

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